Riccardo Calafiori completed another 90-minute match for Italy as they guaranteed a top-two finish in their World Cup qualification group with a win over Israel.
Though Italy continue to chase runaway World Cup qualification Group I leaders Norway, the Azzurri had the chance to at least confirm a top-two finish with a result against Israel on Tuesday night.
Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori was named in the starting lineup for the second game running, having also played the full 90 minutes in the win away to Estonia last week.
Italy conceded late on in that game through a Gianluigi Donnarumma howler, with Calafiori helpless to prevent the error. The team had kept a clean sheet in Calafiori’s only other previous qualifier appearance, with the Arsenal left-back playing at centre-back for his country.
That was the case again on Tuesday, with Calafiori at centre-back in a back four and Inter Milan’s Federico Dimarco on the left.
Though Israel did have chances, Italy limited them to just 0.78 expected goals from eight shots, and they ended up keeping another clean sheet in a 3-0 win. Perhaps more importantly for Arsenal fans, Calafiori seemed to complete the full 90 minutes unscathed.
The three points mean that Italy will at least have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup through a play-off, but they can also still qualify automatically.
Three points and 16 goals behind Norway, Italy would probably need to beat Norway in November and also see Norway slip up in their game against Estonia to have any realistic chance of leapfrogging them at the last moment.
The goal difference gap is simply too large to have any realistic expectation that overturning it could be possible in the final two matches.
For example, even a very unlikely 5-0 win for Italy over Norway would require that they win their other game against Moldova by six more goals than Norway manage against Estonia. So if Norway beat Estonia 1-0, Italy would have to beat Moldova 7-0.
In all probability, if Norway beat Estonia, Italy will probably end up in the play-offs.